Entertainment
Taking the pulse from our Fair City for 25 years
TV Watch with Dave O’Connell
Perhaps the biggest shocker of all for Fair City’s 25th anniversary celebrations was that Paul Brennan once had a full head of hair – but then again anyone who has worked his way through more women than Georgie Best since then is bound to have lost more than sleep.
It’s easy to slag off Fair City, but a quarter of a century is some tribute to its longevity and the soap has been rightly making headlines of its own to mark its silver jubilee.
The Nationwide special was revealing in that it showed soap fans what actually happens behind the scenes – from the sets that don’t look so real once you roll the cameras back a little, to the early morning starts and long days for the so-called stars.
The Late Late tribute was an effort to get two pints into a one pint pot and half the cast who’d turned out in their finery didn’t even get a cutaway shot on the night, let alone a chance to actually say something.
It wasn’t quite the celebration that Christy Phelan was hoping for as he checked out for the last time on the floor of his sitting room after a big row with son-in-law Max – but Carol and Dan certainly had an anniversary to remember on the floor of the white Hiace.
Psychologists would have drawn many sexual analogies from the sight of Dan’s car going up in flames alongside them, as they got hot and heavy in the back of the van. And incidentally, it has to be said that rarely has a car burned so comprehensively to a cinder.
But the focus was on Paul (Tony Tormey), one of only two of the originals still anchored in Carrigstown – alongside Charlie Kelly – and he’s bang in the middle of the anniversary storyline after he finds out Niamh has been cheating on him with her toy boy.
Still, Paul has had more women in Carrigstown than a stray dog has lampposts, so it has to be seen as the wheel turning full circle.
The producers spent months building this to an anniversary crescendo – but it’s really when you see the clips from the early years that you realise how far this staple part of the RTE weekly diet has come.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.
A weekend of plein-air painting will take place in Kinvara in early June. The not-for-profit community arts event is being organised by members of the Kinvara Area Visual Artists (KAVA) group and will be led by experienced artists and teachers
Over the Bank Holiday weekend, participants will gather to explore the beauty and culture of the village and surrounding areas, including Thoor Ballylee and the Burren.
The tutors are Steve Browning, Geraldine Walsh, Róisín Curé and Mavis Gormally, who will provide seven full-day workshops in three different locations.
These are suitable for artists who work in oil, acrylic or watercolour. There will also be an exhibition space where participants can show work completed over the weekend. People can also engage in informal paint-outs and enjoy social activities and local attractions.
Steve Browning’s workshops in oils and acrylics will take place in Kinvara Village and the Burren. Steve, who is originally from the UK, initially worked as an art director in London and Dublin. He began painting at weekends, before becoming a fulltime artist. His work has been shown in London, at the Royal Hibernian Academy, and the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts in Belfast. It’s in collections in the UK, USA and Ireland. He has won prizes at the Dublin Plein Air Festival and Wexford’s Art in the Open Festival and has also been a finalist in the prestigious Plein Air Magazine of America’s annual art competition for three years in a row, winning the best acrylic painting award in 2022.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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Grammy-nominated Ukrainian-British violist Maxim Rysanov, multi-award-winning Russian violinist Nikita Boriso-Glebsky and rising cello star Dóra Kokas from Hungary will be in concert in Clifden’s Station House Theatre next Tuesday, March 21, at 8pm.
Their show is part of a national tour of Ireland, presented by Music Network.
They will perform Mozart’s only string trio, Beethoven’s Trio in G major and a work by Bulgarian composer Dobrinka Tabakova which aims to highlight the unity of sound that a string trio can create. A new commission, written by award-winning Irish composer Ed Bennett for Music Network, will complete the programme.
Maxim Rysanov has a worldwide reputation as a violist and conductor, often combining both roles in concerts. He has featured on stage with the world’s leading orchestras, including the Mariinsky in St Petersburg, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Moscow Philharmonic, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Arts Week with Judy Murphy
Oranmore-based soprano Helen Hancock will lead a night of music and song by composers including Schubert, Schumann, and Strauss this Saturday, March 18, for St Patrick’s Weekend.
The concert, entitled The Lark in the Clear Air will also feature a host of Irish tunes. It takes place in Druid’s Mick Lally Theatre on Saturday, starting at 8pm when Helen will be accompanied by Italian pianist Annalisa Monticelli and American clarinettist, Berginald Rash
The programme will feature Schubert’s Shepherd on a Rock and Arnold Cooke’s Songs of Innocence, both written for soprano, clarinet, and piano.
Shepherd on a Rock was composed in 1828, during the last months of Schubert’s life, and explores themes of longing, the arrival of spring, and journeying to the beloved. Cooke’s Songs of Innocence was inspired by the poetry of 19th century English poet and artist, William Blake.
Themes of nature and the cycle of life will be further explored in Strauss’s and Clara Schumann’s songs for soprano and piano, including Die Stille Lotosblume and Zueignung.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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